In the context of OUR (the Ethiopian Elite) self-assessment, I think it is not far-fetched to look into the depth of such essays to understand the “ontological” roots of our intolerance…and violence at large……

….I think in the final instance our political problems too….

……Problems of the elite as a consequence of ill-directed “ontological” experiences, which terminate in irrational notions ……….AND due to a lack or a misconception of the latter, an objective expression of spiritual solitude, which is not openly admitted but unconsciously expressed in a manifestation of intolerance and violence through the outlet of a common political activity, accessible without any intellectual legitimacy to all elements of a society like ours….with any demagogue playing the role of a “good leader” due to the low intellectual level of the community………….An activity which, under these premises of its leadership ultimately develops into a de facto dogma or religion, only good for corruption and self-consumption…hampering any positive social development..

AND

IF this ” Subject” happens to come to a level of state power, by way of some historical circumstance or struggle; you can imagine …and …we have witnessed where the fate of that community ended up…….see from Stalin….through Mao…..up to Mugabe ……and our Melesses…; I name here only those from the left spectrum since they are the ones who are presumably sworn in for the welfare and freedom of their societies….I am not surprised by those from the right spectrum since it lies in the nature of their declared ideology not to be otherwise…

A political leader doesn’t have to be a philosopher but the minimum one could expect is that he understands the scope of philosophy…..Otherwise he is for his community a programmed disaster in person ..

I liked both essays( i.e. see Angelo Campodonico too) but I have only to add what occurred to me at the last words of the first author…(Ineffable Experience/Dienske)…which goes like the following:

>>>>>>>

“The unnameable reminds us of a rich, uncontrollable dimension of our existence and of the importance of the non-linguistic. “In the beginning was not the Word—earlier reigned the grand silence” is the first line of a poem, written by a Dutch poet, J. C. Schagen, who will have the final say in this article:

in the beginning was not the Word—earlier Reigned the grand silence before the first word is the sigh of the sea and after the last it lies in the dust you can pick it up like that the first word—nothing it lies in the dust you can pick it up like this the last word—nothing”….

AND

Here follows the notion which won’t leave me……

So….”after the last it lies in the dust you can pick it up like that the first word—nothing- it lies in the dust you can pick it up like this the last word—nothing”.

…”nothing”….Pick it up…..NO A THING……Pick it up ….Not a thing is…..THE SPIRIT…….

“..nothing”……nothing meaning NOT A THING……NOT A Thing is SOMETHING other than a THING….and Not a thing is for sure A SPIRIT……The SPIRIT ………………….and of course for those who doubt, always with the HOPE under the cover of the positive rational search, which is human and legitimate…

In this sense I wouldn’t be bored to re-read and contemplate again and again along :